What are we missing? Is there a key link we skipped, or a part of the story we got wrong?
Let us know — we’re counting on you to help Encyclo get better.
EveryBlock is a site owned by msnbc.com that collects and sorts local news data and hosts community conversation on a block-by-block level.
The site was launched in 2008 by Chicago-based journalist and developer Adrian Holovaty with a $1.1 million Knight News Challenge grant based on Holovaty’s 2005 map mashup experiment Chicagocrime.org. It initially covered New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, but now covers more than 15 U.S. cities. EveryBlock has seven full-time staff members.
The site includes information ranging from restaurant inspections to crime reports to building permits, as well as news articles and blog entries.
In August 2009, two months after its Knight grant expired, EveryBlock was bought by msnbc.com. EveryBlock was required to make its source code public as terms of its Knight grant. It released its source code in June 2009, at the end of its grant period, though the code has not been publicly updated. The quick acquisition by a for-profit company and the decision not to update the publicly available source code raised some questions about the appropriateness of the use of the Knight funds.
In 2010, the Knight Foundation awarded several grants totaling about $500,000 to fund OpenBlock, a open source re-implementation of EveryBlock.
Since its acquisition, EveryBlock has added local discussion boards, a partnership with the community fix-it site SeeClickFix, and a mobile version, as well as a simpler programming structure to make it easier to integrate into other news sites.
In early 2011, the site underwent its largest redesign to date, focusing largely on social features as well as personalization tools, such as the ability to follow particular places.
The site has been considered a leading practitioner of hyperlocal news and what is sometimes called “data journalism.” The site has also been criticized for offering data that is at times incomplete or without much context.
Video: Holovaty’s 2007 Knight News Challenge video
Video: A 2008 speech by Holovaty on EveryBlock and local data
Forbes is an American business magazine run by the Forbes family since its founding in 1917. Forbes has been known as a financially conservative, pro-business publication geared toward higher-end business professionals. The magazine is part of Forbes Media, a company that includes Forbes.com, the freelance publishing site True/Slant, the investing reference site Investopedia, and a majority stake in…
Some rights reserved.